AusBonsai

A few weeks ago, I dug up a bed-grown Chinese Elm. The root ball is about 20cm in diameter in a top-down view, and pretty shallow. My trunk is about 1.5m tall with several branches coming off it. I left it this tall with the intention of making several air-layers. But now I'm thinking that perhaps this is too much trunk compared to roots because of energy distribution for leafing out. So, should I reduce the trunk? Or can I leave it as big as it is? Thanks

sheepdawg wrote:A few weeks ago, I dug up a bed-grown Chinese Elm. The root ball is about 20cm in diameter in a top-down view, and pretty shallow. My trunk is about 1.5m tall with several branches coming off it. I left it this tall with the intention of making several air-layers. But now I'm thinking that perhaps this is too much trunk compared to roots because of energy distribution for leafing out. So, should I reduce the trunk? Or can I leave it as big as it is? Thanks

Depends what you want to do with it. You can leave as much or as little as you like.

Just on your description, without actually seeing the tree I would say you should be able to leave it as is if you want to make the air layers. I'm still amazed at how little root you actually need to keep a tree alive.